Help the defense

“Spread out and cover them!” Nikolai orders us.

We rush into the hallway and back to where we came from. I sprint down the hallway to where I was before the barrage, and enter the next room by myself. The front left corner is now blown out from the shell that hit earlier. The hole looks like it makes an excellent place to shoot from.

I take my place in the back right of the room and flatten myself to the ground behind a desk, before creeping to the left where I can see a small section of windows on a building across the housing blocks. It’s far, almost three hundred meters. I set the elevation on my optic to three hundred before taking aim. This would be a far shot if a target presented itself. I’ve missed a few times recently so I need to be very careful.

I wait as the sounds of battle continue. My ear picks up the sound of a T-34. It moves for a while, then stops. I hear the machine gun pick up. The main gun goes off. The machine gun continues. The main gun goes off again. The machine gun stops.

For a while the tank is quiet, before the main gun goes off again and the machine gun starts again. This continues for some time, periodic starting and stopping.

Something catches my eye. A helmet.

My heart begins racing but I lock my reticle on the window and wait, trying to calm myself. I am not a human being, I am a machine, built to do a task. I **** myself to hold it together and steady my aim.

A bipod is set up, a massive barrel sticking out. An anti-tank rifle! I need to stop this son of a bitch before he can fire!

I clamp down on my nerves as he exposes himself, the mass of his neck, shoulder, and head centered in my sights. My finger presses gently on the trigger but does not move. He’s taking his time, lining up the perfect shot. Too bad for him, that he doesn’t know I’m doing the same thing.

My weapon goes off first and my sights do not move. He is hit and drops below the window. I duck behind the desk, my heart racing again. I try to catch my breath. How many have I killed so far? I don’t even remember. How long will it be before it’s my turn? I have little time to think. There is more work to do.

I flatten myself again, and holding my weapon securely, I roll to the right, to the front corner of the room. For a moment, I just hold my position out of view. If anybody saw me, I want to give them a moment to forget about me.

I remember the periscope, which I need to use more, and take it out. A quick peek doesn’t reveal very much. If somebody was waiting for me to stick my face back out, they would be too far away for me to see. Nonetheless, I pick a decent spot to watch over, a doorway and a handful of windows on the ground floor of a building about two hundred meters down the line from us. Somebody might try to come through there and flank our forces.

I take a moment to reset my optic for two hundred meters and mentally prepare myself. Realizing that I forgot to cycle my bolt, I take a second to do it quickly, pulling my bolt back to eject the spent round, and pressing one more in to top up my magazine before I close the bolt forwards and chamber a new round.

Here goes nothing. I cautiously inch my way to the left until I can see my target, and I bring my rifle up. Luckily, nobody sees me or takes a shot at me.

I’m back to waiting. My reticle rests on the doorway which is just a short distance away from a wall made of sandbags. Any experienced soldier in this city knows that doorways and streets are where people die, but I choose the doorway anyways. Somebody is more likely to use it than any of the other individual windows. I remain patient.

My waiting is broken when a figure jumps out of a window right at the edge of my sight, an enemy soldier carrying an MP40. I try to put my reticle on him but he moves too fast and takes cover. They’re trying to flank!

Quickly I bring my reticle back to the doorway where three more men are coming through. I fire at the mass running out, my sights centered on them. The first takes the hit in the chest area and flops. I quickly cycle my bolt and take a shot at another one, who is trying to run back inside. My bullet hits his leg and he dives into cover.

Suddenly, bullets splinter the floor in front of me, tearing through the hole in the wall. Fuck!

I leap back, balling myself up and taking cover right against the outside wall. I can hear bullets impacting the outside. A few whizz through the hole and pepper the wall to my left. One whizzes through a window and hits the wall above me.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!

I’ve really screwed myself this time. Never fire twice from the same spot. I shiver in fear, my heart racing. Panic sets in as the bullets hammer my little room. The place where I die. I made a stupid mistake and now I’m going to die for it.

Fuck, how am I going to get out of this? It takes every bit of concentration I have to keep from pissing myself. Should I run for it? Try to shoot back? I cycle my bolt again.

They can’t see me. They know where I am, but they have no clear shot at me. As long as they don’t have something that can breach the stone wall, staying right here might be my only option. I just hope that they don’t have an anti-tank rifle. A few more bullets whip through the room to the left of me and slam into the wall outside.

My heart drops. What if the Wolf of some other counter-sniper finds out that I’m pinned down here? I’ll be dead for sure. What if the enemy fires artillery at this building? The outside wall is not the place to be.

I have to let them get bored enough to stop, and make a run for it. My heart beats out of my chest. As a few minutes progress, the incoming fire becomes more sparse, and eventually trickles out.

Fuck. So far to the door but only one way there. I have ****.

One… two…. Three.

I leap to my feet and dart as quickly as I can towards the desk. I quickly round the desk and change course for the door. A few bullets whip past me and splatter the wall behind me! They’re shooting at me!

After the longest four seconds of my life I dive through the doorway and collapse in the hallway, panting and gasping for air.

Fuck, that was close. My nerves are fried and I need a moment to collect myself before I check in with the others.